Love At Any Cost

The Constant Gardener (5/5 stars)

On the surface, The Constant Gardener is a thriller about pharmaceutical companies, conspiracies, governments, corruption, Africa, AIDS, exploitation of the poor, investigations into all of the above, and murder. However these themes are only scenery for the subplot between the two main characters, which is the real heart and soul of the story.

The movie opens with Justin Quayle, a British diplomat, seeing his wife Tessa off on a plane trip. This is the last time he will ever see her, because she dies in the next scene. Next we see how they meet: she is a student at a guest lecture he is giving at a university, where she essentially accuses him of being a lapdog for the British government. He exists to explain his country's misdeeds in the world. They inexplicably fall into an affair, and while there is definitely a certain chemistry between them, we are not sure why. He initially seems like a stuffy bore, she a paranoid brat. After this Justin sees his wife's dead body and barely reacts, as if he is an emotional cripple of some kind. Finally, seeing a key event that transpired before they were in Africa in the first place, we are led to how these people actually end up there; he is being sent there by his government and she asks him to bring her with him. "In what capacity?" he inquires. Her reply seems to indicate that she does not care how she goes, just that she does.

After all this the movie begins in earnest, with the first third of the movie showing in flashback from Justin's perspective the events they, now married, went through up until her murder. Tessa, while pregnant, is investigating a company testing drugs on AIDS patients in Africa. It becomes clear in this portion of the film that he loves her, but she casts many suspicions upon herself. Is she using him to help her own agenda? Is she faithful? We aren't really sure.

Eventually we are led back to the present where the plane scene, repeated, preceeds Justin's own investigation. Not only does he continue what Tessa started, he attempts to discover her true identity. In the end we see the truth, and perhaps understand better how they ended up together in the first place.

Ralph Fiennes, as Justin, and Rachel Weisz, as Tessa, both deliver award-deserving performances. The visual achivement of this movie is amazing, between the disheartening scenes of the impoverished people and the vivid, beautiful landscapes of Kenya. It is simply shot brilliantly, every scene a lush representation of the characters and their environment. The real achievement is, however, the ability of director Fernando Meirelles (City of God) to simultaneously weave a gripping political thriller while maintaining a balancing emotional resonance through flashback sequences between Justin and Tessa during the last two-thirds of the movie.

On top of all of this, what really makes the movie work are a few flashes of brilliance that deserve to be pointed out. First, two scenes (shown as digitally recorded video) with Justin filming Tessa in a bathtub and another with Tessa filming Justin sleeping that could have easily been regular shots but instead we get a chance to view these people how they saw each other. Next, a scene where Justin visits the house where Tessa lived, alternating with flashbacks of them together there while she was still alive, while we hear her reading a revealing letter that Justin obtains after her death that simultaneously shows us their happiness while together and his devastation after her death. Finally, the last scene of the movie, which I will not describe (as it is too revealing), is perhaps one of the most profoundly moving endings to a movie I have ever seen. These extra touches make you really care about these characters, changing the movie from a simple thriller into something far more.

"Love At Any Cost", a description touted by the movie poster, becomes more and more clear to us as we learn about the characters' relationships with each other, and the motivations behind their actions. The movie is a moving tale of sacrifice as Tessa dies trying to save African drug testing subjects, while other people sacrifice lives and their own morality for money and convenience, and Justin sacrifices his present just so that he can comprehend his own past. It is also a story of discovery. Tessa's investigation into the drug companies, and Justin's investigation into the companies and Tessa. We are given a hint at this from a scene in the very beginning of the movie. Before they leave for Africa and Tessa asks to go with Justin, he states "We hardly know each other." She replies, "You can learn me." Eventually, after her death, he does. So do we.